The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Ashish Kumar Chauhan, on Sunday observed that India's stature in the global order is growing, with New Delhi emerging as a leader that can handle the interests of diverse nations on issues such as black money.
"Today, in the current situation, you might have seen the body language, Mr. Modi was one of the sought after leaders at the G-20. In fact, because of the tension with the Russian President (Vladimir Putin), where he has been told in very strong words by many of the Western leaders. Mr. Modi was practically the only leader who both sides were kind of working with. That's why, not only India is a big market, but, India is also emerging as a country which can actually handle all these sort of diverse interests into one. And, that's where in a sense, India is now coming out to be a leader in actually black-money related activities," Chauhan told ANI here.
Commenting on Prime Minister Modi's black money-related speech, Chauhan said, "Actually, black money is an issue in India which has been huge over the last almost five to six years. But, it has become a very important issue even in the rest of the world. In fact, the U.S. has been very very worried, with President Obama also mentioning it many times."
"Now, the way it is working out with all the countries working on automatic information exchange, which the Prime Minister mentioned today in his speech during a G-20 intervention, it looks as if he is telling ....the developed countries, saying whenever you talk about basically intervention ...kind of activities and information exchange which is automatic. You also don't forget the emerging markets and also take care of our interests, because ultimately the black money is everyone's concern," he added.
"And naturally, for countries which are not able to raise their taxes and whjch basically do not have that kind of base, so for them, it is important to have a situation where nobody is able to evade taxes. He has made a pitch in which he is saying, that we are with you, but you have to also take us along. So, that's a very nice speech," he further said.
Replying to a poser as to whether these talks will translate into action, and whether the common man will get back their money back, Chauhan said, "I think, in India also, nobody is thinking that the money in a sense is too much. But, ultimately, if you are able to reduce the black money impact on the Indian economy, it is going to help everyone. And, that is why even the common man is aware, that ultimately what we need is tax evasion not to be supported going forward. And, whatever we can gather from outside is an additional point."
"But effectively, somewhere down the line, when you take home many things which may not look like immediate, are going to be very very important going forward, ensuring that somewhere down the line, all the countries are going to exchange information automatically on tax evasion, which has not been even heard of before. So, this is something which is very very important going forward and ...all the countries will have to work together," Chauhan added.
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On Prime Minister Modi speaking about tax havens, Chauhan further said, "India's anguish about tax havens has been made very clear, and a similar anguish is there in other developed countries, specially in the U.S., and so on and so forth, where they are also actually working on reduced tax pays. And, they don't like their companies going into the UK or Ireland to evade taxes."
"He is kind of trying to take everyone along, rather than saying we have this problem and you try start helping us. If you do that, other people may help you or may not help you. But, when you work with them, saying it's your problem also, and it's our problem also, and let's work together, and somewhere down the line, we will have a solution," he added.
Earlier, during a G-20 plenary session, Prime Minister Modi pointedly raised the issue of the scourge of black money and sought improved global co-ordination to deal with it.
Prime Minister Modi began his day by meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud during the ongoing G-20 Summit. Besides, he is scheduled to have a meeting with the Spanish Prime Minister later in the day and unveil Gandhi Statue among others.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister had met the BRICS leaders and also had one-on-one interactions with leaders from France, Canada and other leaders of G-20 nations.
After attending the G-20 Summit in Brisbane, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to travel to Sydney, where he will attend a reception organized by and for the Indian Diaspora.
Prime Minister Modi will then travel to Canberra and address the special joint sitting of the Australian Parliament on November 18. He will also address an Indian community event in Melbourne before travelling to Fiji.
Interviewed and reported by Naveen Kapoor/Copy edited by Subhajit Chandra and Amit Shankar.